164 SKETCHES OP RURAL AFFAIRS. 



stalks have 1'eached about knee-high, and that is the 

 proper time for getting rid of it. It has a woody stem, 

 and can therefore be easily pulled up by hand. If 

 allowed to remain till the harvest, its seeds, which are 

 black and rough on the outside, are very conspicuous in 

 the samples, and are much objected to by purchasers of 

 wheat, although when ground into flour they are quite 

 harmless, and being white within, they produce flour 

 which is scarcely to be known from wheat flour. In a 

 dry soil the long prickly-headed poppy is often found a 

 troublesome weed, and more generally still, the common 

 red poppy. 



In strong soils the hairy tare is often common. This 

 is a weak insignificant looking plant, with clusters of 

 veiy small pale blue flowers. The seed pods are short 

 and hairy ; each pod contains two large heavy seeds, 

 which are difficult to winnow from wheat, when once 

 mixed with it. The stinking May-weed, or camomile, 

 is another pest. This plant has a powerful odour, and 

 is so acrid that it blisters the skin when much handled. 

 There are also the well-known blue bottle, the common 

 charlock, and the corn marigold. In some places, but 

 more rarely, there is also the darnel, a large grass, sup- 

 posed to be the tare of Scripture, and whose seeds, 

 when mixed with wheat and ground into flour, have 

 produced serious effects. But instances of this kind 

 are extremely rare, the seeds being lighter than those 

 of wheat, and seldom failing to be separated in the 

 winnowing. 



To get rid of all these weeds, the usual means are, to 

 take care in the first place that the corn-seed be per- 

 fectly free from them ; then to keep a strict watch that 

 not one of these plants be allowed to perfect its seed 

 either in the field itself, or in the hedge-rows surround- 

 ing it ; and finally, to vary the crops in such a manner 

 as to allow of the frequent use of the horse-hoe, as well 

 as the hand in weeding. In weeding by the hand, the 

 implements used are the hand-hoe and the weed-hook. 



